Oxygen played a key role in the evolution of complex organisms, according to new research published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The study shows that the complexity of life forms increased earlier ...

More than 2 billion years ago, long before Earth's atmosphere contained oxygen, one hardy group of microbes may have already evolved to live with the gas, setting the stage for the rise of complex ...

The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the arrival of all complex life on Earth has had an unsolved mystery at its heart. According to the theory, all plants, animals and fungi, known ...

Stored in an open-air warehouse in tropical Darwin, Australia, are dozens of trays containing cylindrical cores of rock. They are from drill holes bored hundreds of meters below the surface by mineral ...

For decades, scientists have believed that complex life began when two very different microbes joined forces, eventually giving rise to plants, animals, and fungi. But one major puzzle remained: how ...

High-resolution isotope data show that a modern-like, oxygen-rich atmosphere was not established until 410 million years ago, supporting a 2-billion-year transitional oxygenation of Earth’s surface.